Rick Perry’s extensive energy plan echoes Palin: “Drill, baby, drill!”

(By Tina Korbe, Hot Air) - Critics of the energy plan Rick Perry will introduce today say it’s “Bush and Cheney gone wild,” but it’s hard to object to common-sense proposals that would create 1.2 million jobs. When Perry delivers the first major policy speech of his campaign today at a Pittsburgh steel mill, he’ll call for expanded oil and gas production, reduced environmental regulations and revised incentives for various types of energy development.

“Getting the energy industry back to work is the quickest way to spark 1.2 million good, well-paid American jobs, and at the same time reduce our dependence on energy from nations that are all too often hostile to the United States,” Perry said in a telephone interview Thursday with USA TODAY previewing the speech at a Pittsburgh steel mill.

He vowed to reverse many of the energy policies pursued by President Obama, saying “the radical environmental movement” had been “sitting in the front of the train, being the engineer” during Obama’s tenure.